Friday, September 27, 2013

Perfect homeschooling day

I love days like this. Homeschooling took on a life of its own without a drop of nudging from me. I had two chickens to butcher, and since the novelty had already worn off, I just couldn't turn my work into a homeschooling activity. So while I was busy pulling feathers, I vaguely hoped that they would find something to do. What a happy surprise to witness productive busyness happening all around me!

Joseph decided to finish making his bow and arrows. Anna eagerly joined in to help sand the bamboo arrows that Joseph split with his ax (so glad that that job was completed with all digits intact).

One of Joseph's arrows was too thin, so he gave it to Anna, who suddenly became inspired to be a teacher. She herded her one student into class and taped math problems on the wall for Lydia to recite.

Lydia, who had previously been singing song after song to herself while climbing over everything, was glad to have an organized activity arranged for her.

Anna even made her her own math notebook, in which she wrote with great care. (oh yes, besides singing, Lydia also wrote a letter to her cousin, Ella. It's that yellow package on the stool)

Ken helped Joseph make a bamboo quiver, and...

project completed! He stuck with it to the end! He can actually shoot pretty far.

Oh, what a lovely day it has been! I got a lot done, and the kids had a day full of activities as if I had spent hours the day before preparing.

Now how can I make this happen more than roughly once a month?

As if my day weren't perfect enough, we had the most relaxing post lunch reading time, complete with the best ice cream ever - frozen (ba-jiao)banana, cocoa powder, coconut oil and a little water. That, with some granola and mini chocolate chips on top, and all was most well with the world. This has actually become a tradition. If we have done enough work in the morning to merit a long break in the heat of the day, we milk our "siesta" for all it's worth. Once, when we had been reading for close to two hours after lunch, I sensed we had gone too far.

Suffice it to say, today went very well. I'll be sure to document this day to prove to the officials that creative learning actually happens sometimes.

oops! I forgot to tell you about this amazing stuff! Yup, the coconut oil is liquid (still quite hot over here). I use three of the thicker, shorter kind of bananas. I'm guessing three regular bananas would be about the same. Make sure they have reached full sweetness without getting mushy. Then I do a dollop of coconut oil, a few shakes of coco powder, and a few splashes of water. Sorry, that's the best I can do. If you twisted my arm, I would estimate the water to be about 1/3 to 1/2 cup, the coconut oil to be about 1/4 cup or less, and the coco powder 3 TBS. Maybe. Now go try it as soon as possible!